Congratulations!!!!

We have just seen one of the behind the scenes activities she was involved with. It is not all about painting community halls and putting up tourist signs.

No it's also about losing close to $50 million in 2008 through dubious investment strategies. Add to that the remarkable "investment" in our runway expansion, and she must be very influential indeed to still have her position.
I'll hold off on the cheerleading until NDTI releases their annual report from 2009. Still not out yet. Last year I can see why they delayed releasing it until after the election. What's the excuse this year?

With all of the wild spending going on by Governments in this province in recent years, we are going to have to be careful we don't end up like Ontario (and Greece).

You Think California's Bad, Check Out Ontario With $21 Billion In Debt And Just 11.4 Million People

The Canadian province of Ontario looks like that country's California, though its in much worse shape than America's bad seed.

Ontario has a $21 billion deficit, only $1 billion more than California, according to Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis. But Ontario has less than a third the population of California, with 11.4 million citizens to California's 37 million.

http://www.businessinsider.com/you-think-californias-bad-check-out-ontario-2010-3

(Once Governments "hit the wall" and are forced to make spending cuts in a debt saturated economy it sets off a "downward spiral" in the economy which feeds on itself. Welcome to the end game, the world of debt deflation, and the 1930's).

Greece's finances have "fallen into a vicious circle" after the ruling socialists announced drastic spending cuts to contain the debt crisis, the country's central bank said in its annual report.
Hours after a senior official revealed the nation had enough money to get by until the end of April, the Bank of Greece forecast that the Greek economy would contract by 2% this year – worse than the government's predicted 1.7% and bound to exacerbate fiscal woes.

The gloomy assessment, on the eve of a crucial EU summit in Brussels, was blamed squarely on the draconian austerity measures aimed at saving €4.8bn (£4.3bn) for the government.

As average wages drop for the first time since the restoration of democracy in 1974, the resulting reduction in spending power would inevitably extend the country's deep-seated recession, the bank said. Worse than expected growth last year had also played a role.

The budget deficit, forecast at 12.7% of GDP in 2009, would hit 12.9%, the bank said, estimating public debt at 115% of annual output: "The Greek economy has fallen into a vicious circle with only one way out: the drastic reduction of the deficit and debt."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/22/greek-cuts-make-debt-crisis-worse

Maybe the government in Ontario should ask Uncle Bob in Zimbabwe how he handles finances.

Interesting discussion about government debt. I want to make sure that everyone is clear about the difference between debt and deficit. Debt is the total amount of money the government owes. Deficit is how much more they are spending this year over the amount of money coming in. Ontario's debt is not $21 Billion. It is closer to $200 Billion. They are just planning to add $21 Billion to it this year. I think the BC Government may be projecting a deficit this year of $5 Billion on top of our existing $50 Billion dollar debt. The federal government is talking about deficits of about $50 Billion on top of our existing $500 Billion dollar debt. My understanding is that if you add up the total of the existing debts of the federal government and all the provinces the total is over $1 Trillion. Divide that by 34 Million Canadians and you have about $30,000 in total government debt for each individual. I have a family of 4 so our share is $120,000.

Note that this debt figure does not include municipal debts (I don't know hwat my share of the PG debt is) or the debts of government corporations like the PG airport, BC Ferries or Canada Post.

I am glad that interest rates are as low as they are.

Yep, Herbster, what have you done with your life. Just a working stiff paying taxes, or have you actually taken a chance in life and gotten into business. Living the life of no guarantees. The life of understanding risk and reward. If it was not for people taking risks, there would be no free enterprise. If there is no free enterprise, we would be living in a socialist state. Just like what Sweden and the USSR use to be. After 70 years, the USSR recognized it is not sustainable, and the standard of life deteriates. yada yada yada.

Thus NDI will have winners, and will have losers. That is what risk and reward is about.

Way to go Janine, Keep up the good work and the positive out look.

If NDIT was a private free enterprise endeavour, you'd have a point.
However it is a trust fund meant to compensate Northern BC for the loss of BC Rail and its associated jobs. As such it is not well suited for high risk investments such as heavy equity holdings(which they have), and high cost dubious payback projects like the airport runway extension.

You also got to remember, when you leverage 95 million to 900 million dollars worth of investment. It creates a lot of paychecks into the families and businesses. Meaning that, the provincial government has likely recaptured most of the 95 million dollars either through personel income tax, coporate income tax, fuel tax, PST.

Private enterprise can not make this kind of venture, only the government.

You Liberals have quite the double standard. When the NDP lost money on the fast ferries, none of you would try to justify it on the basis of jobs or taxes recouped or that it was a risk worth taking. But when a Liberal organized institution loses vast sums on a ill-conceived investing strategy, or fly by night schemes, all is hunky dory. Quite the nice little fantasy world you live in. However there will soon come a time to pay the piper, and the NDIT will have been squandered when we really need it.

Kolberg. Thank you for clarifying the difference between deficits and debt. The article I posted above had a typo in its headline which I did not pick up on, (it used the word debt when it should have used the word deficit) and this probably caused some confusion to people who read it.

Speaking of Ontario, I see the "sunshine list" of Ontario public sector employees earning $100,000 or more was recently released.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) responded today to the release of the Ontario Sunshine list of Ontario public sector employees earning $100,000 or more. CTF Federal Director said “to understand why Ontario is running the largest deficit in its history – larger even then California’s – just look at the $100,000 club.”

In three years the number on the list has grown by 91%. From 33,440 in 2006 to 63,837 in 2009. Last year the $100,000 club was 53,572. It has grown by 19% year-over-year. Gaudet said, “the salaries are only the tip of the iceberg for compensation. On top of this are job security and lucrative pensions for life that kick in early.”

“There is an increasing divide between those who work in the private sector and those privileged and protected workers in the public sector. This has to end,” said Gaudet.

http://www.taxpayer.com/node/11869

With a debt of around 200 Billion$, a deficit of around 21 Billion$, and a huge unfunded liability in their healthcare system (due to the demographic tsunami which is about to hit all of us), I would think Ontario is going to be the first (but not the last) province in Canada which is going to hit the debt wall, and have to cut spending.

It is truly going to be interesting to watch the "big fight over money" which is coming to this country. We have a lot of cutting in government spending to do to transform our economy from a "borrow and spend" one to one where we have to live within our means.

I think we should wage war on Alberta .....

The rest of the workd is fighting over oil, why shouldn't we?

Thanks for the posts Charles. Its a huge problem and I wouldn't say Ontario will be the first to see the hit... I think it will be BC, because our government is still in the mode of cutting corporate taxes as we head deeper into deficit. At least Ontario recognizes the problem, so are likely 5-steps ahead of BC in dealing with it. The bureaucracy in BC will sink us in debt obligations and not blink twice about it.

Also I agree with Herbster about the reckless spending at NDI. They have a mandate to only invest in non profit ventures, so any argument that their investments will see economic growth as a result of their 'investments' (read tax dollar subsidies) is not based on the reality of there stated mandate. The only profits made off of NDI 'investments' were made by Wall Street hedge fund managers that traded NDI out of $50 million in reserve funds... and downtown PG slum lords getting million dollar liquor licenses from bad land deals. I'm not a big fan of NDI.